Today’s architects’ ambitions: in search of a new narrative canon

Since the establishment of the canonical narrative of mid-20th century architecture, we have become accustomed to view current architecture as a result of the development of an aesthetic ideology described in those texts. And yet this narrative is largely obsolete today as an explanation of contemporary architecture. This course has as its objective alternative explanations of the new paradigms and goals which are driving the work of today´s architects.

In the first session, lectures 1-3 during the first week, we will examine the canonical explanation of modern architecture from Giedeon to Frampton, from Zevi and Benevolo to Tafuri, who can be said to have established the canonical narrative we cited above. Space, rational structure, avant garde movements in art and social context are the guidelines of this narrative. The following week, lectures 4-6, will focus on the consideration of how those categories no longer apply in today´s architecture.

In the second session, lectures 7-12, we will analyze examples of contemporary work, and provide a critical backdrop for them, establishing new categories to explain today´s architects' ambitions. Freed from the limits imposed by structure, scale or conventional representation, the contemporary architecture of late capitalism has engaged in the pursuit of novelty above all else. We will consider a range of projects from several different architects in seeking to define this new paradigm and to discuss the nature of today´s practice and the motives which seem to inspire contemporary work.”